Brothers Bound By Blood
by pastelchalks
Summary: With Danny Phantom. Crossposted on AO3. Previously called 'Brothers Apart but not Alone'. Rewritten. Triplets Dick, Harry and Danny never really had a chance to know each other before being split soon after birth. How will their stories change? Harry's a wizard, Danny's half ghost and Dick's a vigilante who's aided the saving of the world multiple times. Why are they so special?
1. Chapter 1

**I've decided to redo my story - Brothers Apart but not Alone. There are various different reasons, but the main one is that when I wrote it, I was first getting into writing fanfiction and I was way in over my head with what I decided to write. Back when I first started writing it I barely knew anything about how to write a good strong story line. Hell - I could barely speak english that well. **

**What I should've done was started out with a simple fanfiction idea - maybe one shots - before committing to a long story. I really do feel like I've expanded my horizons now that I'm more fluent in English, writing comes to me easier than it did before. Before I had no real story idea - I was just going with whatever popped into my head as I was writing and it was going nowhere.'**

It was a real delight when Haly's circus found out that Mary Grayson was pregnant. Children were a novelty in their line of work - especially with how demanding the circus life was - and how little time they had to raise any children. As soon as the Grayson couple found out, they were determined to make it work, somehow. One child couldn't be too hard to look after, could it?

As it turns out, at one of Mary's ultrasound sessions three babies had been found in her womb. John and Mary were fine with one kid, but two or three? There simply wasn't space or time to be a parent of three children. They shared worried looks in the office, and both seemed to come to the conclusion that it just would never work.

Not with the vigorous training, limited space in their trailer and a lack of resources that had just enough to support one baby - let alone three. They'd both immediately agreed that they'd keep the oldest, and put the other two up for adoption. It wasn't much of a hard choice, they'd crunched the numbers and accepted the reality. They couldn't afford more than one.

Mary had kept on doing her normal routine until her pregnancy started to show, around ten weeks along. That's when she started to lay off the intense training and stressing shows, allowing her husband and the rest of The Flying Graysons to take over and work out a routine that would work without her. That didn't mean she stopped exercising altogether, she'd just taken it easier and still did stretches daily to make sure she didn't lose her flexibility.

The triplets were born on the 1st of December, 1996, in Bucharest, Romania.

They had three boys - all with blue eyes and black hair. Their eldest child they named Richard John Grayson, after John and his brother. Their middle child had been named Daniel James Grayson and they named their youngest Harold James Grayson. All quite noble names that had a bit of history in both sides of their family.

They got odd looks when they named two children with the same middle name, but it just happened that they had named each 'james' after a different relative. Mary named Harold's middle name 'James' after her grandfather, a prominent figure in her life, and John named Daniel's middle name 'James' in memory of his uncle - who had been murdered when he was younger.

Haly's circus was on a tour around Europe at the time, and the Doctors had recommended to her that it was best to keep the three babies on breast milk for six months at least, to make sure they had the absolute best development and health before she'd put them up for adoption.

John and Mary agreed, even if reluctantly. They could keep a few infants around for a few months, all they did was eat and sleep, right?

Wrong.

Daniel had been a handful, crying almost all the time, and it wasn't quite clear what he could possibly be wanting! Harold had kept quiet, mostly, only crying when he was either hungry or had a soiled nappy, keeping to himself really. Richard, whom they had nicknamed Dick, however, had been so curious all the time! He would grab anything in reach, whether it was Mary's long hair or John's fingers, if it was in reach, it was his.

Dick had started crawling as soon as four months, shuffling to anything and everything.

After a few hectic months, the six-month mark happens to close on in. They just so happened to be in London at the time. Mary had to admit that she had grown a little attached to the other two infants during the time she spent with them, but the simple fact was that they couldn't handle a family of five with them in their tiny trailer, especially not when the three kids would eventually outgrow the space.

There was already a single bed loft built into the top of the trailer, which could support one child, but three? There wasn't a single option that they could think of to raise a big family.

So on that day, June 1st 1997, they signed away their rights to guardianship over Daniel and Harold to a local orphanage run by nuns. The circus made a small donation to the orphanage so that they could support their sons better than they could, and they all held soft prayers that Daniel and Harold would be adopted soon enough. John gives the orphanage his personal email so they could keep in touch and hear about their children over time.

A small unknown fact about the Grayson line was that they held a very rare type of subdued magic. Romani magic, very subtle but also very effective. Even though John was the Romani one out of the couple, one of the traits of Romani magic was that when its prophetic powers recognise that a Romani person had met their soul mate and was completely compatible, it would shift the non Romani's blood ever so slightly so that the magic would be intertwined among their very genetic code.

It was how the Romani line had stayed pure, through the prospect of true love. True, Mary had not been born with the Romani magic, but she had gained it through a soul bond. She'd blessed three identical amulets, a small silver plate with an intricate design around a centred black pearl all attracted to the end of a chain, with a protective charm that would only manifest when they were in life-threatening danger, and only once.

She'd also placed a concealment charm on them, so that even though people could see the amulet, they'd say nothing of it, and wouldn't even have a second thought about it or ask them about. Even the wearer wouldn't question its presence or have the thought to ever take it off.

That is, until the concealment charm wore off, which on her estimations would be in their mid-teens. The specific protection charm that she had placed would never wear off until it had been used.

Since she couldn't raise two of them, she owed them that much, she owed them her protection.

—

Jack and Maddie Fenton were in the UK for an international paranormal activity convention. They'd started off their trip with a visit to an orphanage that had supposedly once been haunted in the past by a former resident who had died in a tragic event. Their initial plan was to go in, get some leadings on their personalised ectoplasm detecting devices and then get outta there. All that went out the window when they saw a certain blue-eyed baby with black hair in the nursery.

They'd been doing routine scans and Maddie all of a sudden felt a pull towards the baby, and she fell in love. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought back to the experiment that had gone south and taken away her fertility. She'd immediately picked up the baby in her arms and looked at Jack with a pleading look.

He'd given in at once after he'd seen the happiness on his wife's face. They'd already had a daughter, yes, but a son to boot? They'd requested for an adoption meeting as soon as possible with the nuns and within two weeks they were returning to America with the newest member of the Fenton family, Daniel James Fenton.

—

Lily and James had been looking for an heir for the longest time. James being an Auror had constantly put himself in the front line of the wizarding war. A few years ago he'd been hit with dark magic, unable to get up a shield in time that could prevent it, he'd been hit right in the chest with an infertility curse. They'd talked to everybody - even goblins - about how to reverse the curse only to find out the same thing every time, the only way James could ever be able to have a genetic heir would be to blood adopt.

Which was highly illegal if the blood adoption in question included a high potency blood replacement.

Lily had looked around for a reputable orphanage with known ethical practices. St Catherines located just north of London sounded promising. It hadn't disappointed.

When they'd found a healthy enough child, just old enough to be off of breastfeeding but young enough to form an attachment to another woman as his mother. She'd carefully looked through the papers he had come with, particularly the part where it said that his birth parents were still alive and kicking, and he had two brothers that he'd been separated from.

The nuns assured her that the parents wouldn't come back looking for him, and the other two children were in perfectly safe homes.

Lily had asked why Harold had been given to the orphanage in the first place.

"The couple that had them were acrobats in a circus - they simply didn't have the time or resources for three children. They kept one, their oldest, and their middle child has already been adopted by a pair of scientists. He's half Romani from Romania and half white from Russia."

The Potters nod and look down at the sleeping almost eight-month-old baby.

"He's perfect." Lily breathes. James wholeheartedly agrees with her.

"This is the one," James confirms, taking small Harold from his wife's arms. Lily then takes out her wand and Obliviates the stunned nun, unaware that there's another nun watching from a darkened corner. They use magic to alter the adoption forms to make it seem like Harold was never there in the first place, also unknowing that there had been made an electronic copy of everything. They apparatus out of the orphanage to their home in Godric's Hollow.

Lily takes out a pre-prepared blood adopting potion, which had one of the highest potencies of any blood adoption ever, a 20% blood transfer. The highest legal potency of a blood adoption was 10%, so the child would have 5% of each adoptive parent in their genetics, but still be the child of their original parents.

Blood adoptions were extremely illegal if the child was underage without the express permission of the child's parents, the child and the new parents.

But James and Lily were desperate enough that they did it anyway. By the end of the night, they had altered Harold so 20% of him wasn't a Grayson anymore.

He had a new birth certificate written in a blood quill by both of his new parents.

'Harry James Potter'

'Born 31st July 1997'

—


	2. Chapter 2

_31st October 1999_,_ Godric's Hollow._

Lily and James have had Harry for just over a year, and they were the most adoring parents an adoptee could wish for. They'd just about spoiled little Harry, and had confunded some of their closest friends to think that Lily had really been pregnant with Harry and that he was fully theirs by blood.

He wasn't and wasn't that just the elephant in the room that Lily and James had been dancing around all this time. Harry had just barely enough of their blood for a magical core to start forming naturally, and a weak one at that. It was unnaturally small for a child his age, so they had been giving him potions daily to try to catch him up to a normal size, to no avail.

With a magical core of his size, he'd be able to perform most of the average every day spells for a wizard when he was older, but nothing big or exceptional. He wouldn't be particularly skilled in any subject if he ever went to Hogwarts. He might have magic in his blood, but he'd still always be more muggle than he ever would be magical.

Although a closer examination of his blood gave them a delightful surprise. He had a natural affinity for a rare branch of magic; Romani magic. Romani magic held exceptional results when fortune telling, amulet magic and a branch of charms that any normal wizard wouldn't ever be able to use.

Romani magic was purely genetic and only belonged to the Romani people of Europe and Asia. Even then, traditions were lost over the generations and a few of the secrets were passed exclusively through the female line from mother to daughter. Romani magic was mainly family-based magic, but there was one isolated school in a mountain range of Romania that taught some of the basics of Romani magic for sixteen-year-olds to nineteen-year-olds.

Later that night, when Voldemort points his wand at Harry, his amulet projects a misty white shield around his body, rebounding the killing curse. The black pearl in the centre of the amulet had lost its colour and returned to its original pearl white colouration.

—

Danny Fenton hadn't particularly looked like either of his parents, except for the black hair his dad had. His skin was a soft creamy colour that wouldn't burn - but tanned under the sun's rays, unlike the rest of his family who had to wear layers upon layers of sunscreen to keep themselves from turning a bright red and having their skin peel.

His suspicions were confirmed when he turned eight, and his parents had sat him down, gently explaining that he was adopted. He hadn't freaked out or cried, he was always so sure of himself that he was apart of the family no matter who were his birth parents. As it turns, the circus his parents and brother worked in was coming to town on their North American tour.

They'd gotten tickets and the privilege to see Danny's birth parents work their magic on the trapeze, and oh boy, was it a sight to see. Whenever they had an act that didn't involve a net, the youngest performer was left on one of the central higher platforms, almost pouting at being left out of an act.

Danny couldn't deny that the entire act was amazing in itself, feeling the tiniest bit resentful that he had never gotten to live that life, never gotten to learn the very art of the family that had run in his blood and veins. Danny could see that every other Grayson seemed to have a confident grace that nobody else possessed. He notes bitterly that he's a Grayson by blood but nothing else. He buys a poster for the Flying Grayson's.

He doesn't know any of his heritage's traditions, the family business or even the native language that his family spoke! He feels cheated out of what could have been an extraordinary and unique childhood, and instead dumped off with a rather ordinary family in comparison, given that his adoptive parents were considered experts in anything paranormal that was ghost related.

Living in a smallish town meant that everybody knew practically everybody else, and it was no secret that Maddie Fenton had only ever been pregnant with the older sister of the Fenton family. It was no brainer that he was adopted, and the entire town was too kind to tell him. Another downside to living in a small town was that everybody recognised Jack and Maddie Fenton as the local town loonies.

That's when he decides out of resentment that he wouldn't need the Grayson's to achieve great things. He didn't need any fancy trapeze act (no matter if it was globally renowned) to take him far in life. He'd show them that he could be better, then they'd _really_ regret leaving him at an orphanage in London. He'd show them, and maybe then they'd see why they should've kept him. He'd go to the moon and back.

Maybe literally.

—

There wasn't anything that Dick Grayson wasn't completely sure about. He was sure about his place with his parents, he was sure about his role in life and he was _definitely_ sure about the fact that he absolutely wanted to join the rest of his family in their big trapeze finale act. He'd spent so long training for it!

John finally let in, saying that he could be in exactly _finale_ act in two months time. Their last stop in the North American tour, Gotham City. Dick was ecstatic, training harder than he'd ever been before, and giving more thought into his diet. If he wanted to build the muscle mass required to do the strenuous stunts that were required of him.

"_Mumma_,_ what is this?_" He asks his parents one night. He'd found a picture of himself as an infant along with two other babies besides him. Had there been other children born in the circus? Maybe it was the fortune teller, she wasn't old by any standards, but certainly old enough that she could've been a mother around the same time Mary was. But there weren't any other kid's around Dick's age currently residing at the circus.

_"You were a triplet. Not identical, but you all did look pretty alike when you were born. We couldn't look after you all, so… We left the other two at an orphanage in London. They've all been adopted by nice families that'll care for them._" Dick Pouts, it'd be nice to have kids his own age to play with, but he understood first hand how limited the resources at the circus were. Sometimes when they had their tour at a particularly expensive town for groceries, his parents took turns missing out on lunch so that Dick would never go to sleep with an empty stomach.

No matter how much they tried to hide it, Dick picked up on it, he knew that his parents made sacrifices for him.

One day, he promised, he'd make a sacrifice for them that they'd be proud of.

—

Harry had stopped trying a long time ago. Sure, maybe there was once a time when he'd try in school or tried to make friends. There was definitely a time when he used to wonder why his relatives didn't love him. He'd stopped competing for the love and acceptance of his relatives, it was futile anyway.

The big tree by the local park was more of a home than his cupboard under the stairs would ever be. Harry had figured that he had an affinity for climbing big trees when he was much younger, five maybe. Climbing the big pine tree was a useful skill when he wanted solace from his bully of a cousin. Nobody else could climb as high as he could, which was about three quarters up the tree.

Not even Piers, who would climb almost halfway, attempted the climb between the massive gap between branches. There were no footholds for about 7 feet after the halfway point of the tree, everybody tried to figure out how bloody _scarface Potter_ managed to get past that.

It was simple really, when he'd first done it he had no fear of death or bodily harm, so he'd either make the jump or die. It was really a win-win situation, so he made the attempt and was delighted that he found out that he could.

Vernon had taken Dudley to see a football game, so that night it was just Petunia and Harry for dinner. He'd refused to call her Aunt or Vernon Uncle. They weren't really his family, not in the way that mattered. He'd stuck to calling her 'Mrs Dursley' if he could get away with it, and called Vernon 'Sir' to keep on the safe side.

She'd looked at him funny during dinner as if she was seeing him for the first time.

"You don't have her eyes." Petunia points out, rather uselessly. She's right, Harry had seen pictures of Lily Potter.

"I don't." He agrees. He looked nothing like them.

He guesses you could pull up similarities if you were really reaching for it. He went to bed that night with a little more on his plate than usual. He had pale skin but didn't freckle, not like his mother. He'd tan under hours of gardening.

It was useless. In his relative's eyes, he either was _too_ much a Potter or not enough.

He'd take what he could get.

—

April 1st, 2006.

Dick, against all odds, didn't cry himself to sleep that night. Yes, his parents had fallen, and yes he did cry. He cried out his heart's content when the social workers took him to a foster home that night. He'd been loud, and his new roommate didn't have the heart to tell him to shut up, opting to sleep downstairs on the couch instead. He'd cried and _wailed_ and even when he was out of breath and exhausted, his mind was too busy for him to sleep.

His heart beating too fast for his body to relax.

—

He'd tried to run away from the foster home that night, stupidly so. He had nothing, and didn't make it far. He stopped at a playground and sat on a swing. That's where they found him. Mrs Riley, the woman in charge of the foster home, was hardly sympathetic. She roughly grabbed him by the wrist and told him to get over it, careful to hold him tight enough to hurt, but loose enough not to leave a bruise.

He'd almost cried. Almost.

He'd tried to run away a few more times after that, each coming with a punishment worse than the last. The first time Mrs Riley made him go to bed hungry, he'd been up all night, not being able to sleep on an empty stomach.

Now? He'd gotten used to the notion, the rumbling in his stomach comforting him, it inspired him to try harder next time. The worst punishment he'd gotten was being handcuffed to a support beam in the basement. He hadn't asked her where she'd gotten the handcuffs from or why. He'd learned long ago what asking questions in the foster home meant. Dick had only been in this foster home for about two weeks now.

Long gone was that easy going circus kid and a now jaded pre-teen had taken his place. There was a silent agreement in the almost full foster home, Dick could spend the entire day out, but had to be back in time for bed-checks. Mrs Riley could care less if Dick had gotten an education or not.

—

When Danny had found out his parents, no, _birth_ parents had died, what he'd felt at first was indifference. Then he felt sympathy for the child they had kept, who had nobody left at all. It wasn't really his loss, was it? He'd never known Mary or John Grayson and hadn't lost anything.

Nothing but the potential future opportunity where he could possibly meet his birth parents out of pure curiosity. Danny had heard that Dick had gone through the Gotham foster system and ended up in a home with eight other children. He once had resentment that Dick had been kept by his parents, but that resentment turned into relief that Danny hadn't been in that position.

"Maybe we could take him in?" He suggests, weakly. At the time he thinks it's a fantastic idea. It's a way to get in touch with his birth family - through his brother. His mother, Maddie, shakes her head. Then it really hits him. There was almost no link to his birth family, the very blood that ran through his veins.

"Aw, Honey, I wish we could." Tears threaten to spill, and he's desperately blinking them back.

"Why can't you?!" He chokes out after his unsuccessful attempt at keeping his tears in. His mother sighs.

"We got you through private adoption. He's in the state system - which is vastly more complicated. We'd have to get a family lawyer _and_ you know we can't afford it! Do you know how many loans we've already had to take out for our own lab?" She wants Danny to understand, she really does, but there isn't much she can do.

Danny storms up into his room, and rips up all evidence that anybody had even lived in his room. He tore everything out of its rightful place in his room, only leaving the necessities. He threw it all straight into the trash, falling into his bare bed. Nobody had come to see him that night.

He found the solitary easier than the thought of his parents coming up to talk to him.

—

Harry had been up on the highest branch he could reach for a few hours now, shuddering when the evening breezes began. Why couldn't he be born a squirrel or something? He'd be able to climb as high as he'd like without a worry in the world. No chores, no school, no fat-ass of a cousin to bother him.

When Harry didn't come home one night, none of the Dursley's worried. Except for Petunia, who had a great fear of what the old fool would do if he'd gotten wind that Harry was _lost_. Petunia asked Dudley where he was.

"The Park." He says through a mouthful of heavily buttered toast. Petunia grumbles and goes to the park to retrieve her dumb as bricks nephew. He's nowhere in sight, until a movement in one of the trees catches her eyes, and _Jesus Christ_ how high was he?! He must've been a fifty feet up sitting in a tree branch.

"What on _earth_ are you doing!?" She shrieks, Harry looks down at her dumbly.

"I'm stuck!" He lies. He's not, not really. But he has felt a great tremor of grief crash through him. He can't explain it, but there's dark despair coursing through him. It's an emotion that Harry knows for a fact isn't his own. It's like in those old movies, as if the 'Force' was a real thing, and somebody was calling out to Harry through their grief.

Petunia fumes, before dialling in a number to her cellphone. It's the firemen.

Shit, he's in too deep. He really has to commit to the 'I'm stuck up a tree' notion now. The news'll spread like wildfire, think of the nicknames Dudley's gang would think up of.

—

Dick hadn't wasted a second on the streets. He'd only had a few hours each day to explore, so the first couple days he was allowed out, he made a mental map of Gotham. The next? He learned how to pick locks, some other street kids were happy enough to lent a hand, given he'd bring back any food that Mrs Riley had given him before he left in the morning. Pretty quickly, Dick had figured how to lock pick anything that wasn't too complex.

Next thing? He listened out for any mention of Tony Zucco on the streets. Just under a week later, three weeks after his parent's demise, he'd gotten a schedule for Zucco's usual outings. Dick had a time and a place. He had a method and an escape plan. Dick wasn't stupid by any means, and knew that murdering Zucco could get him in major trouble.

But imagine all the future deaths he would prevent by taking out Zucco as soon as possible. He was doing Gotham a favour, and it was only fair. A kill for a kill.

Dick had already tried to run away that previous night, so tonight was spent in the basement. Luckily he had been anticipating this very moment. As soon as she shut the door of the basement, Dick had sprung into action. The handcuffs were off in what Dick estimated was record time, and the knapsack he stashed under his bed was taken without alerting any of the residents.

He slightly congratulated himself on becoming a self taught ninja.

There he was, on the roof of the warehouse, about to enter through the roof entrance. The repurposed broom handle made a nifty bo-staff. Weapon in hand and the plan in his mind, he's ready to enter.

There's the soft landing of large boots behind him. Dick almost swears, because if it's who he thinks it is, Dick only ever heard him because he wanted Dick to hear him.

The Batman.

Dick scoffs.

"You can't stop me."

Batman ignores him, instead talking as if he hadn't said anything.

"Killing isn't the answer. There are other ways people like him will never hurt anybody again." A bitter laugh escapes Dick's throat. Every fibre of him is telling him to be terrified or to run away, it's _the_ Batman he's talking to.

"I - I want to avenge my parents' death." It's almost a lie, because Dick really can't tell if he's avenging his parents' death or unleashing revenge on the person responsible.

"There's a fine line between vengeance and revenge. You're dangerously close to walking it." If he see's how caked in dirt Dick's face is, he barely glances at it. Dick feels oddly dignified in the first time in what feels like forever.

"You don't know anything about me! You don't know how it feels for your parents to die right in front of your own eyes! You don't know what it's like to have nothing left." His hands grip tighter around his home-made weapon. The evening Gotham breeze blows colder than Dick's ever felt it before.

"You can't fight crime by becoming the criminal." The breeze seems to do Batman favours, bellowing his cape to one side, making him more intimidating than Dick gave him credit for.

"You don't know _shit_ about me." Dick goes back to lock picking the roof entrance with what few scrap bits of metal he's salvaged. He could manage fine with his current cavalry.

"What would your parents think. Would you really tarnish their memory by doing something so… impulsive?" That's the phrase that gets him to falter, and this time Dick really thinks about it. _Mama_ would be horrified. She wouldn't be able to look him in the eyes. Shame pools within Dick's stomach.

He can't believe he'd gotten so close to almost killing a man. He knows its pretty close to the last straw with him and Mrs Riley. He'd heard her threat loud and clear. '_One more time young man,_' she began in her shrill voice '_and I'll call up your social worker. I've had it to here with you. If you wanna run away so much your place here can be used on a child who'll appreciate it. Some foster homes won't even clothe you. You're lucky to be here.'_

He doesn't doubt that there had been much worse foster homes, hearing the stories of the other street kids had been confirmation enough.

"You'll deal with Zucco then?" He asks, confirming that he's not down for homicide anymore. Batman silently nods, and begins to do his thing where he melts into the shadows only to be seen again miles away. Dick swallows thickly. "Wait! I can't go back there - the foster home."

"Stay there one more night. I'll talk to somebody."

—

31st July, 2008.

Harry cleans up the breakfast table, half paying attention to the telly. It was his birthday that day, and unlike every other eleven year old, he had no celebration. The only sign that anybody even knew was when Petunia slid him a slice of bacon and a glass of orange juice along with his usual breakfast of two slices of unbuttered toast like usual.

On the telly, there's a news report on one of the latest philanthropist donation. Bruce Wayne had made a sizeable donation towards children in crisis in Asia. Last time Harry had heard of the globally renowned billionaire was when he had adopted a foster kid last year, around April.

A letter had been sent to him that day, it was a shame he didn't get to read the contents until about a week later.

Hogwarts? It didn't quite ring any bells for Harry, but he was ecstatic after a certain half-giant had introduced him to the wizarding world.

Harry James Potter. The boy-who-lived. That had a nice ring to it, didn't it?

—


End file.
